Market Wire: The First Celebrity, Stage Legend, Media Darling

NEW YORK, NY–(Marketwire -10/25/11)- This woman — whose life story is chronicled in the newly published “A Dangerous Woman: The Life, Loves and Scandals of Adah Isaacs Menken, 1835 – 1868″ by Michael and Barbara Foster — appeared nude on stage shows, dated powerful men, blazed through five marriages, set fashion trends, inspired writers to create fictional characters based on her real life, was rumored to be bisexual and shocked the popular culture into following her every move. Almost every glamorous and scandalous movie star who has ever made a career by making headlines owes a debt to a woman whose outrageous behavior would have left all of them in the dust, and she started her journey during the Civil War.